Robotech Saga Wiki:Manual of Style
This is the Robotech Saga Wiki Manual of Style. All policies and guidelines on this page must be followed with no exceptions unless otherwise stated below. The purpose of a manual of style is to keep all articles clean and organized throughout the wiki. The manual of style is suppose to help editors maintain a certain level of quality on this wiki. Please read this page carefully and follow the guidelines as closely as possible when editing any page on this wiki. If you would like to suggest changes or additions to these guidelines, please do so on the talk page. Use the methods given below to help ensure the site stays looking crisp, clean, and consistent. Perspective An in-universe perspective is used in all episode articles pertaining to story-orientated pages. Articles must be written as though the Robotech universe was the real world. This includes all character, weapon, location, and any other page with content from Robotech. Direct references to episodes and chapters should not be used in episode articles. Instead, any in-universe citation should be done in parenthesis, for example: :Khyron did a suicide run on into the twin ships. (Macross Saga: To the Stars). :Dana often told the same stories over and over again (Masters Saga: Dana's Story, Robotech: Love & War) :Scott Bernard was strong in action but a whiny when it came to Marlene (New Generation: every story in the saga) The most common style for sourcing comics should be Comic series title: Issue Title, as in: : Roy left his family in the year 1999. (From the Stars: Promises) : T.R. Edward's antics would usually register to the on-board crew in the same fashion that the Three Stooge's antics would (Robotech II: The Sentinels: A New Threat) With some comics, however, this simply does not work. If the individual issues do not have a name, the number will have to serve as the second link. For instance: (Robotech/Voltron 5). If the comic is a one-shot, and thus has no series, then the grouping "COMIC" will do, as in (COMIC: "'Robotech: Crystal Dreams). Any out-of-universe info thought to be relevant (production, background, non-story info) can be put in the "behind-the-scenes" section. Information from non-narrative sources, such as reference books and story plans belong behind the scenes as well, although ''names being taken from these sources are acceptable. Real-world articles do not, of course, serve this principle as they are already out-of-universe. Pages such as these include pages on voice actors, comics, novels, episodes, films, etc. Page layout Page names are bolded in the introductory paragraph using three marks on either side of the text. Each page should have an Appearances section with a bulleted list of where it appears, sorted into mediums in chronological order. If a character has appeared in many stories, a separate page can be made to list these, entitled a List of Apperances. See Continuity and Canon in the Robotech Universe for more explanation. Reference sources, such as from the RPG books or the Robotech Infopedia, should only be listed in a Sources section. Include information from these sources for technical data only as needed, instead of adding to the history section. Each page should also be linked to at least one relevant category at the end of the page. Subsequent categories can be added in alphabetical order if they also apply. Content Language English is the language used on this wiki. If English is not your primary language and you have trouble using it, try to make your contributions as clear as possible so that they can be corrected later without difficulty. The exception to the language policy is the use of Japanese words where they are necessary. All Japanese words must be in italics. Japanese text should only be used in the introduction and infobox of each character article or in a description of the differences between Japanese and English versions. Comments and Talk Pages Comments and talk pages are used for discussion on article maintenance and correctness only. All other discussions, questions, or speculations may be posted in the forums. Please remember to sign all posts using four tildes (~~~~). This will generate your signature and a time stamp. Do not sign any edits made in article space. As a means of of helping readability, posts can be indented using colons (:). Additional colons will indent subsequent comments further. This helps identify which post is being responded to. Quotes Quotes added to character articles must be taken from the Robotech series exactly as they appear. Quotes should only be added if they are used to help show a character’s personality or bring insight to the event of object they are on. Source of Material When contributing to any article on the wiki, the Robotech show is the primary source and takes priority over everything else. This includes the original 85 episodes, the Sentinels spin-off film or finished episodes, and any Robotech film, including Robotech: The Movie. Any comics printed since From the Stars also hold this ideal. Information from official comics or other relevant works licensed by Harmony Gold USA is also accepted. Info from non-narrative sources (art & information books) or the books by the writing team Jack McKinney should be placed in the behind-the-scenes section, as those are now considered to be non-valid sources. This wiki only focuses on the Robotech saga. Articles relating to the original series can be linked to, but not created. There should also not be any fan fiction articles. Units of Measurement The units of measurement used in Japan (where original animated footage for Robotech came from) and in robotech.com (the official site for Robotech) are SI units (e.g. centimeters, kilograms, liters), and SI is the only system of measurement used on Robotech Saga Wiki. While conversions to Imperial units (e.g. feet, pounds) may be helpful to some users, they should not be added to info-boxes or anywhere else in articles. Grammar *Excessive grammatical errors should be avoided. If you have trouble with spelling, just click the "Source" button at the top of the edit window. The code view has a spell-check feature built in. *Colloquialisms, idioms, and slang are not acceptable. *Use of Apostrophe and Quoting Marks in titles and names of works (As used in html code). Double Apostrophe marks are to be used to italicize names of series and Japanese terms. i.e. Robotech. Quoting Marks are to be used in episodes names or very short comic series, up to 12 issues. i.e. "Robotech/Voltron" Vandalism and Profanity *Vandalism includes removing material from articles without a legitimate reason, blanking an article, or adding bad or malicious material to articles, and it will not be tolerated. Bad or malicious material includes but is not limited to speculation and material added to deliberately devalue the page. Adding pages with nothing more than nonsense like, "LOL" or something simliar is not acceptable. Such vandalism will get an automatic two month tempban. *Slang terms referring to the human anatomy are unacceptable in articles. *Profane or vulgar language should not be used in articles. It is not forbidden in the forum and other areas unless it is used excessively, used to aggressively target other users, or used after being asked to stop by other users, but it is strongly preferred that you avoid this language when it is unnecessary. Speculation Speculation does not belong in articles or anywhere else on the wiki other than the Watercooler section of the forums. Speculation posted in other discussion areas will be moved to the Watercooler. Speculation added to “Behind the Scenes” section or other sections of an article will simply be deleted. Image Policy Only registered users have the ability to upload images. Any registered user may upload images and add them to articles as long as they follow the guidelines listed below. *All Robotech images (i.e. from the Robotech franchise or licenses works) uploaded to this wiki must be listed under the Fair Use template. *Images added to any article must be taken directly from the show itself, comic books, or other approved media. Images from Art books and reference material are, as with the sources, not acceptable for use in pages. *Images found through an image search or from another website should not be used on any article, especially, if such images have text or website logos. *Images MUST at least a name that isn't a random string of letters or mumbers. Something like, aaaaaaaa.jpg or afe335s.gif are not acceptable and are subject to deletion without warning. *Non-Robotech images in articles may be subject to deletion. Such images may be used in User Pages or blogs. *Images in articles must be relevant to Robotech. *No fanart is allowed on the articles. The wiki staff is not in the mood to deal with annoyed artists (Japanese or otherwise) about using their artwork without permission. Furthermore, unlicensed images are not satisfactory in illustrating in-universe subjects. If fan art is to be posted on blogs and user pages, a source should be included to the original artist. Some images like this ( ) are fanmade. Unfortunately, the author of said piece is unknown as of this writing. *There IS a maximum number of images that can be added to articles. As of now, rule of thumb: if the volume of images starts to dominate an article, you shouldn't add more images. The use of image galleries is discouraged. The whole point of the wiki is a general repository of information, not images. Infobox images When it comes to which image should become the main info-box image of an article, the following things need to be considered: * Images from narrative stories are the only acceptable sort of images to be used in the in-universe section of pages. * Any image from the original 85 episodes show will trump any image from other sources. * Any image from will trump any images from any versions of . * Images which focus more on the face (Rather then full-body or otherwise) are preferred. * Images that show personality are preferred. Creating Pages When a new page is created, the title should be the full and most formal name of the article's subject. Words should be capitalized as they would be in any typical title. The following is a list of the subjects articles may be created for. *'Characters' – Any character with an official name, a significant speaking role, or anyone else that is not a background character can have an individual page. *'Universe' – Any location, weapon, vehicle, event, or anything else which is either specific to Robotech Saga Wiki or has a specific name given in the series can have an individual page. *'Episodes' – Each episode gets an individual page. *'Comic Book Issues' – Each issue gets an individual page. *'Novels' - Each novel gets an individual page. What Kind of Articles that Should Not Be Made While the wiki welcomes new articles, articles should explain an aspect of the Robotech franchise that can't easily found in places like wikipedia. i.e. planet, ocean, gun, air, bear, car, etc. would be considered minutia, not worth making an article about. These are examples of minutia that should never be made. Culled from infamous examples from other fandom wikis. *https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Breast *https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Pants *https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Nose *https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Wood *https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Chair *https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Rape *https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Squidward%27s_toilet A few reasons why these kind of articles won't be allowed: *Some appear to appeal to a particular fetish. *Some are just utterly trivial to even make an article about. *They exist to up article number count. *They are joke articles. Now a little humour isn't bad but that's just bit much. Videos Posting of videos are allowed. It's best to post a video (link or embedded video) from an official source. Any and all videos that not linked to official sources will be subject to deletion due to the fact such sources have this annoying tendency to die or to be marked private. Category:Browse